Switzerland's Political System

Direct Democracy

«It is astonishing how little the rest of the world knows about the
way Switzerland runs its politics. Even its next-door neighbors in Europe,
though vaguely aware that it is a deeply decentralized country,
do not really understand the other, more important part of the Swiss system
-- the part that could turn out to be a model for everybody's
21st century democracy.» Brian Beedham, United Press International,
in a book review on Gregory Fossedal's The road to full democracy.

Switzerland is a small country located in the heart of western Europe,
at the intersection of German, French and Italian language and culture.
Switzerland has been multicultural in its own way for centuries.
Democracy and Direct Democracy in particular, has a long,
but not undisputed tradition in this country.
Switzerland's unique political system is today world's most stable
democratic system, offering a maximum of participation to citizens.

Switzerland's Direct Democracy is not the result of pure tradition
and harmonic development, however. Much to the contrary, the very
basics (decentralisation of power) and the unique instruments of
Direct Democracy (frequent referendums and
popular initiative) have been established through
hard political struggle, including a violent
Revolution in 1798,
decades of rioting (1830's and 1840's: the term putsch for
a violent overthrow of government is one of the few Swiss German dialect
words that have been adopted in a large number of foreign languages ...)
culminating in a short
civil war in 1847.

Basic Features of Switzerland's Political System

Switzerland is a Confederation of 26 cantons. The cantons
[member states of the federation] do enjoy quite some autonomy.

Governments, parliaments and courts on 3 levels:
- federal
- cantonal
- communal small villages have reunions of all citizens
instead of parliaments,
local courts are common to several communities

Two features of Direct Democracy grant an unusually detailed
level of participation to ordinary citizens:· Popular Initiative:Ordinary citizens may propose changes to the constitution,
if they can find a number of supporters (100,000 out of about 3,500,000
voters, smaller numbers on cantonal and communal level).
The parliament will discuss the proposals, probably set up an alternative
and afterwards all citizens may decide in a referendum whether to
accept the original initiative, the alternate parliamentary proposal
or to leave the constitution unchanged.

All democratic political systems
share the separation of powers (independence of government/administration,
parliament (legislation) and courts of justice). Several political parties
compete with each other to propose solutions to the country's problems.
The federal system is not mandatory for a democracy, but it can be found
in many other countries like the U.S.A., Germany, Austria etc.
In other words: most aspects of Switzerland's political system are just
normal features of a modern democracy.

The two chambers of Switzerland's national parliament meet several times
annually to sessions during several weeks and between them to preparing
meetings in numerous commissions. But being member of parliament is not
a full time job in Switzerland, contrary to most other countries today.
This means that members of parliament have to practise an ordinary
profession to earn their living - thereby they are closer to everyday
life of their electorate.

The really remarkable thing about Switzerland's political system is
Direct Democracy: the extraordinary amount of participation in
the political process that is granted to ordinary citizens. In other
words: it is not the mere existence of direct democratic instruments
(federalism is widespread and referendums are not completely unknown to
other democratic systems) but rather the frequent use of them,
not only as encouraged bySwitzerland's Constitution,
but as practised with enthusiasm by the citizens.
Frequent referendums
do have a stabilizing influence on parliament, government, economy and society:

Referendums will increase the willingness to compromise (otherwise
a party defeated in parliament will call for a referendum).This effect is not so strong, however,
as we see from the fact that there
are several non-mandatory referendums in Switzerland every year (and
even some successful ones leaving the uncompromising majority and the
goverment in the rain) despite the fact that every politician
should know and "fear" them ...

Referendums increase stability: As extreme laws will mercilessly be blocked by
the electorate in referendums, parties are less inclined to radical
changes in laws and voters are less inclined to call for fundamental
changes in elections. There is no need to dismiss the government
after a lost referendum, because the referendum solves the problem -
preventing an extreme law - more efficiently and also more precisely:
On the very same day, three new laws may be accepted and two others
rejected.